Explaining an exchange

On my visit today I got talking to a teacher. Since I have spent some time home educating I find this interesting and personal. She told me of a brief part of a conversation she had with a home educated young woman of about 16. Somehow she asked why she wasn't taking GCSEs or what she would do without GCSEs. The reply was brief, well rehearsed, but didn't get either of them further forward.

I gave my analysis that this was not a casual question. It went straight for the young person's family's deepest fears, hopes and values. It was not safe for her either as a teacher, since she was in effect asking for her own lifetime of study and qualifications to be examined and threshed just like that. Which it had been, in an instant.

I suggested going back and trying to discuss the fact that this had not been a wise topic for conversation, they needed an awful lot more discussion and friendship first. They needed the tools for having such a discussion. They'd have to build those tools during many conversations about a shared love of dogs or the countryside for example.

...

Mmm - this song: Stay High by Tora Lo. H gave me a cd to enjoy in the car and I found this song I knew from somewhere. It's the 'Habits remix'.